How do I select serial port for Cricut using USB?

[dtroutt]

Hi All

I have now successfully installed SCAL2 on my computer and activated it. I have a couple of serial devices hooked up through USBs on my Windows 7 64-bit computer. How do I select the correct serial port for SCAL to connect to the Cricut? Is this a necessary step so the software knows where to "look" for the cricut, or does it default to a particular com port? I have looked through SCAL thoroughly and have not found a place to choose the serial port. When I choose "Cut" I get an error message stating: "Cricut Machine could not be found". I have everything plugged in and initially it looks like the computer thinks it has the correct USB drivers. I am trying to use SCAL2 with my Cricut Expression that has a firmware update of 2.32.


Thanks,

Dianna

[btails]

do you have a serial port on the front of your tower ??

[talanhart]

Do not have any other software running upfront or in the background. SCAL doesn't like any other programs to be running that use USB ports. Cell phones and scanner software have interfered with SCAL. There may be others.

Check your Ports (Com & LPT)>USB Serial Port (COM4) If the number is higher than 4, you might have to change it to 1,2,3 or 4. Your Cricut will have to be plugged into your computer for these to show up in your device manager.

[dtroutt]

I think the problem may be the USB driver because we went through the same install procedure on the Windows 7 laptop (this time a 32 bit system rather than 64-bit) and everything worked like a charm within 2 minutes. We have tried connecting the cricut through both front USB ports on the front (these happen to be com3 and com4) with the same above error message. We let windows find the USB Serial Converter as indicated in the SCAL2 help, but it still doesn't work. Any other suggestions? Also, when Windows tries to update the driver through the advanced settings, it tells us that the most updated driver is already installed. I am really stumped.

[btails]

maybe you have a bad usb cable....I bought a brand new printer yrs ago and tried everything to get it to work....had to plug and unplug the cable on the printer end...took a month to figure that one out....any chance of finding another cable ???

[dtroutt]

I don't think it is the cable because I used the same cable with my laptop and it works fine. Good idea anyway.

[dtroutt]

Yes, these are USB ports 3 and 4 on the front of my tower, and we have disconnected most things that use USB connectors, but my keyboard and mouse use USB connectors as well. I still think it may have to do with the wrong driver. Does anyone know how to determine if I have the correct drivers?

[talanhart]

Check out this thread. There is a picture showing where I had to download a second driver to get SCAL to work. It was in the tree as Ports> USB Serial Port. I had the driver installed correctly for the USB Controller, but not the USB Serial Port. Once I installed this driver my SCAL and Cricut worked.
http://forums.surecutsalot.com/viewtopi ... d&start=10